If you live with a spinal cord injury (SCI) and navigate the unpredictable waters of chronic illness, you already know the invisible weight we carry every single day. When your body operates under a completely different set of rules, "being well" becomes a full-time job. It is an active, ongoing, and often exhausting pursuit. You wake …
The skin is closed. To anyone else, the battle looks won. The VAC pump is finally off, and there is a natural temptation to think you can finally jump straight back into normal life. But anyone who has ever survived a deep pressure ulcer knows the terrifying truth: closed skin does not mean fully healed tissue. Even …
September is Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month. Since 2007, a rare neurological illness called neuro mystica has left me paralysed from the T5 level and visually impaired. But numbers and medical charts only tell a tiny fraction of the story. To me, disability is the exhausting mental battle of having a mind that wants to …
Continue reading Spinal Cordially Invited into My Reality: Learning to Love the Body I’m In
Starting over is a skill you learn when life changes in a single second. My first restart began in a hospital bed in 2007, following a diagnosis of a rare illness called Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO), which caused my spinal cord injury, paralysis, and visual impairment. At the time, I thought that was the only time …
Finding Gratitude, Grace, Healing, and Power After Bed Rest I look into the mirror every day, expecting a familiar reflection. But then a period of medical crisis hits, and suddenly, the person looking back feels like a complete stranger. If you are standing in front of your mirror right now, wondering where "you" went after …
I recently wrote a post about the intense anxiety of living with a newly healed pressure wound. Shortly after publishing it, a wonderful reader reached out with some incredible advice that completely reframed how I view my current mental state. They reminded me of a fascinating piece of evolutionary biology that changed my entire perspective …
Continue reading Why My Brain Won’t Let Me Celebrate My Healed Wound (Thanks, Caveman Amygdala)
There are weeks when the simple act of showing up for yourself feels like climbing a mountain. This past week has been one of them. Getting back up and into my chair after 6.5months in bed, has been a real struggle. If you’ve ever experienced those seasons where your body simply refuses to cooperate, you …
Continue reading The Art of Slowing Down: Finding Balance in My Chair Through Qigong
Currently we are facing a massive world change & this can cause many emotions, one of them being fear. This can unsettle us, take us out of alignment due to the uncertainty of the new reality, which we don’t understand. If we constantly watch the news, read the papers, connect with parts of life that …
During times of challenge we can feel worry, anxiety, stress. Our breathing can shorten, breathing from our chest rather than deeper into our belly. Our mind can become foggy, filled with fear & listening to our monkey mind working overtime. To quieten the monkey, calm our mind, empower our body & connect back to self …
Continue reading Mindful Breathing to calm the mind & empower the body
These are challenging times, we have been put into a situation that can be hard to deal with, causing us stress & worry. It’s not natural to spend all day, everyday, cooped up with our nearest & dearest, which can cause its own challenge. Niggling, arguments, discomfort in our home, causing further upset angst. As …
It’s so easy when stuck indoors to have a party in your pants on the sofa, watching TV all day, but that can only keep you going for a small amount of time Before you go a little nuts. Believe me, after a number of years on & off bed rest I know About the …
Self isolation = self motivation to look after ourselves. Getting this bowl of goodness into my body to start my day off right!! Sunshine Smoothie Bowl You will need 1/2 Avocado 🥑 1/2 Banana 🍌 Handful Spinach 🥬 Handful Berries 🍓 Tbsp Chia Seeds Tbsp Peanut Butter 🥜 Nuts to sprinkle Method Put everything other …
